Saturday, 5 November 2011

Franz Welser-Möst und seine Clevelander

Musikverein, 04/11/2011

Weber: Overture to Euryanthe, op. 81

John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony

Chaikovsky: Symphony no. 4 in F minor, op. 36

What
with the Thielemann Ring and Wien Modern, I only made it to one of the four
Cleveland concerts on at the Musikverein this week. It was a good one, but despite
a promising start I soon recognised what critic Don Rosenberg got ousted from
his beat for saying – outstanding playing, directionless conducting.

Directionless because
of Franz Welser-Möst’s neurotic attention to detail. In the Weber it was all about
articulation, with a dizzying number of gestures to ‘assist’ the delivery of
phrases – by which I mean routine stuff
that conductors usually see to in rehearsal but just let happen in performance.
To what extent Welser-Möst shaped anything larger is debatable. Fortunately the
vibrancy of the playing saved this from sounding micro-managed: the strings
opened strongly with one of those sparks you’re lucky to get a handful of in a
season, and the charged playing spread with across the orchestra with an easy,
natural momentum. None of it was fierce or heavy and even the basses sounded
lyrical.

The
Doctor Atomic Symphony failed to ignite in the same way. John Adams has tightened
up this orchestral arrangement of music from his 2005 opera, cutting the length
by half. But it didn’t hang together so convincingly under Welser-Möst’s
direction. The first fifteen minutes made Adams sound like the bastard child of
Copland and Stravinsky – quite different to David Robertson’s more
distinctive reading with the Saint Louis Symphony. The trumpet solo with
intermittent minimalist ostinato was a curious affair: channelling Louis
Armstrong was mildly amusing the first time and corny by the third, and the
string flare-ups seemed oddly contrived. The only thing I took away from this
was that Welser-Möst has possibly experienced a New Orleans jazz funeral.

The
Chaikovsky got off to a shaky start, with a few fluffs in the brass. Playing
was more solid after that, with smooth entries and some notable contributions in the middle movements: oboe, celli, and pleasantly warbly bassoon. I should also mention the Cleveland’s timpanist – after much rough-edged rolling from the Symphoniker recently, it was good to hear an instrument with depth, roundness and, yes, pitch to the sound. Third movement pizzicato was well-balanced, expressive, and warm.But again the conducting didn’t do anything to lift this above an uninspiring effort: Welser-Möst doesn’t do discursive, the first
movement felt shapeless, and Fate made an incongruous return at the end. Tempi were fine on the whole and playing, once it settled down, reached a certain quality, but for not even an unsatisfactory sum to be fashioned from these very good parts led to what can only be described as a rather stupefying performance.